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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23014462">Not Indestructable</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyanbacon/pseuds/nyanbacon'>nyanbacon</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Restless Eternity [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Lego Ninjago</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Existence Dysphoria, Hospital, Hurt No Comfort, Long term injuries, One Shot, Reincarnation, The word suicide is said, Zane angst, injuries, kind of hospital horror I guess?, that thing where birthmarks show where someone died, vague technoshipping but not really, zane is a human for a bit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 11:15:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>782</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23014462</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyanbacon/pseuds/nyanbacon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Zane isn’t indestructible, but oh how he wished he was.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Restless Eternity [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1552921</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>56</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Not Indestructable</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“You aren’t indestructible.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can’t keep getting hurt like this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll die.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Die.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was impossible. Zane couldn’t die. Well, he could, but he couldn’t. Not </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span>. He didn’t know how to describe it. There were no </span>
  <em>
    <span>words</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Words didn’t work. Only actions. Actions spoke over words and words were just so messy and </span>
  <em>
    <span>inaccurate</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’d been compared to a robot so many times he had just adopted the nickname. Robot. Reckless Robot. Idiot Robot. Emotionless, Smartass, Wise, Acting Without Thinking Robot. Zane the Robot, always acting and never speaking. A quiet hero to some, a confusing nuisance to others.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wasn’t a robot. He had guts and a heart, a beating heart, and he bled. He bled blood, real blood, not some weird pseudo-corn syrup thing like in the movies. He bruised and ached and broke his bones and pierced his innards.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But oh how he </span>
  <em>
    <span>wished </span>
  </em>
  <span>he was a robot. He could do so many things. He could’ve saved that kid from getting hit by the bus without racking up thousands of dollars in medical bills. He could take up his martial arts classes again, because he wouldn’t have a permanently damaged ankle. And even if it </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> permanently damaged, well, that wasn’t possible because he’d be a robot. He could fix it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But now he was 23, leaning on a crutch because his ankle hurt </span>
  <em>
    <span>all the time</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and he could do nothing. All he had was words, words, useless words. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll die.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No I won’t.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Useless. No one listened. All they looked at was the heart monitor, the irregular beat of whatever was left of himself. He wouldn’t die. He would put one foot forward, one after the other after the other, and keep going. There was something more for him, beyond this. He’d get another chance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe that’s why he’d been so willing to let his actions reduce him to this. An ill mess slowly reduced to nothing but an aching ankle and a dying heart beat. It was a long, drawn out suicide, because maybe, </span>
  <em>
    <span>just maybe</span>
  </em>
  <span>, he would be invincible in the next life. He wouldn’t need to use the words he found so useless because he could do all the actions he needed to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you believe in reincarnation?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’d been quiet for days, and every couple hours, someone shook his shoulder to make sure he was still awake, that he hadn’t died in his sleep. He didn’t know why they needed to do that. They had him hooked up to every machine imaginable. The moment his heart rate fell even half a BPM too low someone would be alerted to bring in a crash cart. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>This was the first time someone had heard him speak, and it was the same nurse that had been with him during his month long stays in the hospital. Zane had seen him go from a med student to a full blown nurse tech. It was the one thing that made Zane think that this was all worth it. That someone was able to get this far just because of his reckless robot- no, human, he wasn’t a robot- stupidity. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The nurse turned to look at him. “Do you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After years of struggling to find the words, he’d finally managed to figure out what it was. Why he felt like this wasn’t the end. There was more for him, in the future, and this- reincarnation- was why. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think so,” he managed, laying his head back on the pillows and staring up at the hospital lights. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“... I do too,” the nurse said, glancing at the heart monitor. Something beeped distantly but Zane was too relaxed to care. Years, </span>
  <em>
    <span>years</span>
  </em>
  <span>, of wondering what was </span>
  <em>
    <span>wrong</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and now he finally had an answer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was the first time in his life he’d ever felt content. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There were faces all around him but he only had eyes for the nurse, standing over him as something cold was inserted into his arm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t think I ever asked…” Zane breathed. “What’s your name?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The nurse looked sad, but still wore a reassuring smile. “Jay. Jay Walker.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Distantly, Zane recognized the name. Maybe Jay had said it before, when they first met, or in the countless amount of times they’d seen each other, but he suddenly couldn’t remember. Not that it mattered. Human memory was so fleeting anyway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, Jay Walker.” He looked up at him. He’d never realized that Jay’s eyes were different colors, one marred by a birthmark over the socket. “Hope to see you in the next life.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It pulled a sick laugh out of Jay, and warmth swelled in Zane’s chest before he grew cold. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You too, Zane Julien.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>https://nyanbacon-art.tumblr.com/post/611680088653791232/a-picture-of-jay-from-my-latest-fic</p></blockquote></div></div>
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